Ordo Venatores Magicae
The Ordo Venatores Magicae is a Group founded shortly after the death of King Eamon Bellamy III of Revannavia the Blood Magic Plague when he put multiple magical artifacts on his person. The Order’s sole purpose is purging the little magic in the world from existence with a religious fervor. They are a secret and nigh forgotten group whose cathedrals rest underneath the city of Merlot. Over the many years of existence their hatred of magic has coalesced into something they worship, the anti-magic an aura emanated by their pure hatred of magic which makes them as a void to those who can sense magic via an artifact or nature in the case of dragons and elves. A. Primus Super Omnem – The First Above all, head of the church that the Ordo Venatores Magicae is. A title passed down upon the ritual death of the then current leader of the Ordo. Is seen as the voice of the Anti-Magic which is the “true head of the church”. His word is the law he claims to come from the aura created by the intense hatred of generations of Ordo Venatores Magicae members, a psychosis passed like the title between the Primus’s and even spreading amongst the Clergy. Dressed in robes of royal purple trimmed with golds and silvers and wearing the crown of the Primus the current leader is a man known as Garados Ceasareo. i. Pontiff’s, The Hands and Eyes of the Primus – Under the direct command of the Primus Super Omnem and known to exist for certain only by the most faithful of Cardinals the Pontiff’s are an elite task force raised from infancy to serve the Primus as extensions of his body. All sense of individuality, self, anything resembling who they would have been has been beaten, burned, and purged from them leaving them empty and open for his will to fill them. They are the Primus in mind and spirit be they male or female, if tortured to reveal their identities they will say they are the current Primus Pontiff’s say that they are Garados Ceasareo. There is nothing of an individual left within them, their only purpose is to carry out his will as they have been taught, they do not and cannot think for themselves, they only think for him. They wear cloaks of blue with hoods and cloak covering plate armor, and a sealed iron mask helmet in the highly detailed shape of the current Primus’s face. Their job is simple, should a place be deemed too corrupted by magic or interest in magic, it shall be destroyed in its entirety and razed to the ground, that is their purpose. Should they find infant children in this place, their secondary assignment is to collect as many as they can to send them through the process of Pontiffication. The process by which a baby is chosen for the rank of Pontiff once it has been taken from its home is a test of purity. The babies are placed on sacred trays which are then slid into holy ordained ovens, should the babies receive minimum burns they are then chosen to be Pontiff’s for their lack of corruption. Meanwhile any burned severely will be mere Evangelists and Inquisitors. The fires in these ovens burn royal purple via a special oil, and like the fires which purified them when they come across extreme “magical heresies” the Pontiff’s pour sacred oils on their weapons and light them with the burning “purifying” flames B. Cardinals '''- The college from which the Primus is selected, the highest most faithful and pure of the Church Ordo Venatores Magicae. Wearing darker plainer purple robes they are seen as being slightly less pure than the Primus, but have become more pure than their lesser beneath them. As such they do not need to touch suspected magical articles or those who are suspected of using or having tried to use magics at any time and only order purification rituals to be used or tell others to touch tainted or corrupted things if the need arises. '''C. Archbishops – The second most pure group under the Cardinals, should they perform well in their duties they might ascend to the heights of the Cardinals. They wear further darker purple robes than the Cardinals to represent their closer existence to the taint and corruptive influences of magics. For the most part Archbishops need not touch that which has been corrupted but as they are the ones who physically perform the purification rituals it is required for them to briefly do so usually. i. Purification rituals – Various rituals of the Ordo Venatores Magicae used to destroy suspected magical artifacts, those responsible for tampering with magics or being magical, or those suspected of it. Regardless of the legitimacy of the claim the Ordo refuses to take chances. Depending on the severity of the corruption the item, person, or creature in question could be cast into the holy ovens, dunked in blessed acids, or ritually executed and sacrificed, among others. D. Bishops – The Bishops are the next level under the Archbishops, again the robes of this lower caste are darker than those above showing an ever-dropping purity level. The Bishops are those who directly interact with all suspected taints and corruptions which enter the hidden city of churches. Be it subjecting objects and animals to tests, or torturing suspected “magic users” into confessing so that purification may begin. Most Bishops long for the day they can ascend and stop dirtying their hands with the cancers of magic on a daily basis. E. Deacons – The lowest true Clergymen and the only ones forced to enter the world the Ordo sees as corrupt and rotted. The Deacons robes are nearly black and it is up to them with their squads of Evangelists and Inquisitors to locate possible corruption to remove it. As they wander among a populous which wonders what church they belong to and where they come from they constantly look for signs of corruption that will allow them to take something so they may return from their forsaken pilgrimage to the sanctity of the Church city. The Deacons are seen as the most corrupted among the Clergy till ascension due to their prolonged exposure to the corruptions of belief in magic and possible magical artifacts. To remain a Deacon until death is a great shame among the Ordo. F. Inquisitors – '''The highest non Clergy rank in the Ordo church. Inquisitors are trained by Deacons to recognize and despise that which tainted their bodies leading to their agonizing burns and mutilations and to despise themselves for having the corruption in their blood. Daily Inquisitors must perform small penitence rituals upon themselves, bloodletting, self-flogging, and similar punishments are common, while others where devices which constantly cause immense penance pain to their bodies, gloves or other clothing with sharp jagged blades on the inside to rub their skin, braces which force their body into pained positions and similar tortuous ways to show their desperation to be free of their corruption. Inquisitors wear dark brown robes representing their desire to purge magical corruption from themselves and the world. They are madmen whose sanity was burnt away in infancy when they were placed in the Holy Ovens. '''G. Evangelists – '''Wearing wide brimmed black hats and large masquerade masks to hide their “corrupted” and burned faces, with black tunics and pants the Evangelists are the lowest members of any true merit in the church. Burnt in the ovens even more severely than the Inquisitors they too punish themselves daily. It is their job to pacify people who refuse the demands of the Inquisitors and Deacons, as well as haul wagons full of suspect items creatures and people as another form of penance. Their only thought and desire is to please all those above them in every way like frightened children desperate for a parents love, a love that is hollow and empty when given. '''H. General Church city population, The Goats – Living in the city is the general population, the remnants of the citizens first taken to the City of Churches for protection from the corruption of the world, these people have had all knowledge of the outside world bred out of them along with any desire to learn. They live their lives in oblivious happiness, a bliss born of years of propaganda. They believe the world has ended and they are all that remain, they worship the church as much as the Anti-Magic. Jokingly called the goats, their everyday lives are decided by the church, they only eat at the appointed times, couple with who they are told to on any given day for breeding purposes. There is no marriage or love amongst the goats under the Churches boot, the generations of the Primus’s rule has turned them into little more than talking farm animals, and marriage is a right reserved by true “humans”. Only those children chosen as worthy may ascend past Goathood to be a Clergy member, those lucky few will be taught to be more than animals and that those who are unworthy need to be animals or else they would die. A belief that all in the Ordo fervently zealously believe. I. The Feast of the Passing Elders – As True members of the Ordo approach deaths door rituals are held to pass the knowledge and powers of the oldest generations to the next. Via a process of spilling the blood into a bowl to be divided into goblets, and cooking of the flesh. The Ordo feasts upon those who have lived full lives to gain their knowledge and wisdom, and their hatred and disgust with magic and magical things. As the main Clergy feast, the member chosen as the next Primus feasts upon their predecessor. Unsurprisingly this has led to increasingly violent psychosis within the Clergy members, making them ever more zealously violent in their pursuits. J. The Anti-Magic – The Pseudo god formed of the aura of hatred and disgust the generations of the Ordo have held for the concept of magic and magical artifacts and all who seek to learn about it. The Anti-Magic is an aura burning in all of them that makes them a void to all able to sense the small amount of magic that exists in things in this world, a cold hole in the fabric of reality. The Anti-Magic is in a way the psychosis and insanity shared by the Clergy, and the embodiment of the dumbing down of the Church City’s general population in the form of an incorporeal congealed aura which is worshiped by the Church, and which the Primus claims to gain wisdom, prophecies, laws, and commands from. A side effect of this shared psychosis is a pseudo hive mind connecting the Zealousness of the Clergies members in a way, similar to the pheromones of ants. Ironically this genetic corruption has made them less pure than any the Clergy has punished for being inhuman.